25 years old. Applying to a Japanese University

Hello, been lurking here for a while but finally decided to make my first post. Sorry in advance if this becomes a long one.

I’m 25 now. Finished Highschool with very good grades then went into university to study mechanical engineering, I was doing fine and my grades were fine, but in the middle of my 2nd year of university my family and I had to leave the country I was in and move to Canada. When I went to University here in Canada for some reason they didn’t accept my credits from my past Uni, even tho it was the American University of that country (so it’s the same curriculum), and I had to start as a freshman again in Uni. Starting from zero again and studying engineering, which is something i’m not passionate about and only went in because I was good in math and physics and didn’t know what else i want to do, and most importantly some family and mental issues led my grades to slowly get lower and i had to drop out of uni at 2.5 years again. 2 years later now, i’ve mostly dealt with my issues and I’m planning to move to japan (study or work).

The first option I considered was to get a working holiday visa since i’m Canadian now and still under 30. But when i contacted the Japanese embassy they told me that because of COVID, they are now only giving the Working Holiday visa to people that already have a Job offer before going to Japan. And since I don’t have a Diploma degree I can’t find a job there, unless it’s some Black market stuff like factory work and such, which alot of people advised me against.
So the option I am considering now is to go there as a student. That way I’d be living in japan while also earning a degree. I’ve been studying Japanese by myself for a while now, my listening and comprehension skills are good to where for example I can watch a full episode of a Japanese variety show like Ametalk, Gaki no Tsukai or listen to Japanese podcasts and understand almost the whole thing (unless it gets into deep politics then it gets a little hard). My Kanji and writing knowledge on the other hand is almost none existent, like I only know around 300-400 kanjis (the basic ones). For my Speaking, since I never had any person to speak Japanese with in my enviroment, it probably needs more practice.

So do you think I should go to a 6 months~1 year language school in japan and then apply to a Japanese university there ? Or should I just apply to an english taught program in a Japanese university ?
I also heard that some Universities there offer a program to foreign students, where they spend the first semester learning Japanese and then start their academic journey in Japanese there. Or do people just mean “Language school –> University” by that ?

Sorry if this was too long, and honestly any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Edit: I’m aware that I need to start as a freshman student again if I go to a University in Japan, and I don’t mind that. Also, I want to go to Japan because I’ve always loved the country and its culture since I was a kid and my end-goal was always to go and live there.